FIGURES 
2024 International Ceramic Symposium

5 - 30 August, 2024

FIGURES

In 2024, figurative ceramics will be the central theme of the symposium. Figurative ceramics are works of art that bear strong references to reality and the real world. With the strengthening of abstract tendencies in recent decades, this genre trend has been strongly repressed in the world of contemporary ceramics, and with the invited participants of the symposium, we will research and explore this topic, each with their own means of self-expression, through their own language of form.

​FIGURÁK

2024-ben a figuratív kerámia lesz a szimpózium központi témája. A figuratív kerámiák olyan műalkotások, amelyek erős utalásokkal reflektálnak a való világra. Az absztraháló tendenciák erősödésével az elmúlt évtizedekben ez a műfaji irányzat erősen visszaszorult a kortárs kerámia világában. A szimpózium meghívott résztvevőivel ezt a témát fogjuk kutatni és feltárni, mindenki a saját önkifejezési eszközeivel, egyéni formanyelvén keresztül.

 PAOLO PORELLI

 Italy

With his sculpture, Porelli wants to provide access to an archetypal dimension of reality, condensing surrealist contaminations, Pop proliferations and archaic symbolism in his visual language. The anthropomorphic inventions that he elaborates produce an estrangement effect of the figuration, creating iconographic absurdities and a new mythology of the present. With his human repertory, Porelli emphasizes the critical issues of contemporary mankind and all the phenomena that underlie society, including the unsustainability of civilization as a development model and its incompatibility with nature.
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His sculpture becomes an example of cultural eclecticism and historical nomadism, representing stylistically the expressive globalization of creation. In addition to painting, Porelli's work finds its preferred expressive technique in ceramics, both for the connection of this material with the ancestral roots of man, and due to its versatility, which offers him the opportunity to express current, modern and contemporary concepts.

Artist website

 SUNBIN LIM

 Korea

I was inspired by destroyed buildings, old ruins, and nature. The architecture of my hometown (Cheolwon, South Korea), which was destroyed during the Korean War, the traces of old ancient ruins (for example, the remains of ancient Rome and the Moroccan clay castles), and the forests of Germany, all inspired me and I was able to find interesting elements through them, these are open structures, internal spaces, surface textures. I have been working hard on this. I can also feel imperfect beauty through them. These elements are an important basis of my work.

Artist website

 MING-MIAO KO

 Taiwan / Belgium 

In her works, she plays similarities and reinvents metaphors between the given meanings, symbols, shapes, and associations from nature, daily life, and the human body parts. She reinterprets those elements that refer to gender fluidity, genesis, erotic power and sensuality to generate her artworks as dynamic transforming hybridities. Moreover, she expects to evoke the viewers' relational thoughts of the interconnected bodies of humans and non-humans, which interprets the all-things-connected assemblage of various vital cycles. Accordingly, her works illustrate an uncanny surrealistic symbiosis by delicate porcelain to imply the fragile status of the body between being and becoming to intrigue the viewers' wonder.

Artist website

 NATASHA MAYO

 Wales, UK 

Natasha Mayo’s figurative practice is informed by how thought can be channelled and reveal itself through gestures, pose, and the responsiveness of our skin, often conveying reaction without us even realizing. Her work explores the idea of ‘thinking through the skin’, through the body blushing, shivering, paling, sweating. And yet, the knowledge pulsing though our veins does not always belong to ‘us’, we carry inherited predispositions, familial traits, as well as enacting individual response. Passages of shared human activity are carried within us, travelling through generations, transferred from one person to another, overlapping, transforming, lying dormant beneath the epidermis, surging forward in response to a situation.

The practice arises from a fascination with the layering of stories and experiences that connect and make us who we are, experienced through and enacted by the body.

 GERGO AMMER

 Hungary

The emphasis of my portraits is not only the metacommunicative expression and grasping the general mood but also to improve sculptural properties. Besides being inspired by art history, my own personal experiences contribute greatly to the development of my series. These portraits may be considered as my self-analysis.

My larger-sized plaster-assemblage figure compositions originated from my portraits and their procession methods, which are reproductions of biblical and mythological stories. The formation of these art pieces cites the classical era of art history, which is connected to the present by models and interpretations from the contemporary era. I omit conventional iconography so that it allows me more freedom to express myself. With these new depictions, they may evoke feelings that are perplexing or the viewer may find it unusual and confusing. 

Artist website

 SZANTÓ TAMÁS

 Hungary 

Tamás Szántó, ceramicist and glass artist, participated in numerous exhibitions and symposiums in Hungary after he finished studies. His work is praised in many public and mural works, including the reconstruction of the relief gate inlay of the 12 Apostles of the Zsolnay Mausoleum in Pécs, Hungary.

In 2006, the XIX. National Ceramics Biennale was held in the Pince Gallery in Pécs, where his work was awarded with a prize.
His work is characterised by monumentality and he also regularly makes figural sculptures. In his independent art-pieces, he combines abstraction with futuristic visions to create a half-human, half-animal creatures.

 ZSIGÓ ANDRÁS

 Hungary 

My starting and ending points are always humans: faces, gestures, bodies and movements. I aim to find contradictions, paradoxes and glitches in a seemingly predictible environment filled with chaos-based behaviour.

Working with ceramics is probably the most important part of my work.
An ancient art with ancient rules. Material and technique lay down boundaries, so I feel constantly provoked to cross them. I am free to do many many things with the clay, but whatever is my plan, fire has the last word. Well prepared designs may lead to dead ends and mistakes can present themselves as beautiful gifts. By walking on the path between anxiety and the point of letting go, the whole creative process draws a perfect circle at the end.

Kecskeméti Kortárs Művészeti Műhelyek
NEMZETKÖZI KERÁMIA STÚDIÓ

Kecskemét Contemporary Art Studios
INTERNATIONAL CERAMICS STUDIO

Address:

Kápolna u.11,
Kecskemét 6000
Hungary

Phone:
+36 76 486867

Email:

Steve Mattison: icshu@me.com 
Erika Sütő: studiovezeto@kkmm.hu
NKS Office: icshu@t-online.hu

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